Random House Audio Publishing Group

Burntown

Filed Under: Books Read

Burntown

Burntown by Jennifer McMahon, Abby Craden
Published by Random House Audio Publishing Group on April 25th 2017
Format: audiobook
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

Ashford, Vermont, might look like your typical sleepy New England college town, but to the shadowy residents who live among the remains of its abandoned mills and factories, it's known as -Burntown.- Eva Sandeski, known as -Necco- on the street, has been a part of this underworld for years, ever since the night her father Miles drowned in a flood that left her and her mother Lily homeless. A respected professor, Miles was also an inventor of fantastic machines, including one so secret that the plans were said to have been stolen from Thomas Edison's workshop. According to Lily, it's this machine that got Miles murdered. Necco has always written off this claim as the fevered imaginings of a woman consumed by grief. But when Lily dies under mysterious circumstances, and Necco's boyfriend is murdered, she's convinced her mother was telling the truth. Now, on the run from the man called -Snake Eyes, - Necco must rely on other Burntown outsiders to survive. There are the -fire eaters, - mystical women living off the grid in a campsite on the river's edge, practicing a kind of soothsaying inspired by powerful herbs called -the devil's snuff-; there's Theo, a high school senior who is scrambling to repay the money she owes a dangerous man; and then there's Pru, the cafeteria lady with a secret life. As the lives of these misfits intersect, and as the killer from the Sandeski family's past draws ever closer, a story of edge-of-your-seat suspense begins to unfurl with classic Jennifer McMahon twists and surprises.

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

Filed Under: Books Read

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America

An Unbelievable Story: She Said She Was Raped. Detectives Said She Lied. How Police Investigate Sexual Assault in America. by T Christian Miller
Published by Random House Audio Publishing Group on February 6th 2018
Format: audiobook
Genres: Criminal Justice, Journalism, Nonfiction, Politics & Social Sciences
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists tell the riveting true story of Marie, a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped, and the detectives who followed a winding path to arrive at the truth. On August 11, 2008, eighteen-year-old Marie truthfully reported that a masked man broke into her apartment near Seattle, Washington, and raped her, but within days police and even those closest to Marie became suspicious of her story. The police swiftly pivoted and began investigating her. Confronted with inconsistencies in her story and the doubts of others, Marie broke down and said her story was a lie. Police charged her with false reporting. One of her best friends created a web page branding her a liar.

More than two years later, Colorado detective Stacy Galbraith was assigned to investigate a case of sexual assault. Describing the crime to her husband that night--the attacker's calm and practiced demeanor, which led the victim to surmise "he's done this before"--Galbraith learned that the case bore an eerie resemblance to a rape that had taken place months earlier in a nearby town. She joined forces with the detective on that case, Edna Hendershot, and the two soon realized they were dealing with a serial rapist: a man who photographed his victims, threatening to release the images online, and whose calculated steps to erase all physical evidence suggested he might be a soldier or a cop. Through meticulous police work the detectives would eventually connect the rapist to other attacks in Colorado--and beyond.

Based on investigative files and extensive interviews with the principals, An Unbelievable Story is a serpentine tale of doubt, lies, and a hunt for justice, unveiling the disturbing reality of how sexual assault is investigated today--and the long history of skepticism toward rape victims.

In 2008 an 18 year old woman reported that she was raped at knife point in her apartment in Lynwwod, WA. The police did not believe her because there were inconsistencies in her story. The victim finally admitted that she had lied, the investigating officer charged her with charged with a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. What actually happened was that the police did not believe her and pressured her to recant her story, not understanding that many victims of violent crimes have difficulty describing what happened to them. The inconsistencies wasn’t because she was lying, the inconsistencies were caused by the trauma she suffered.

Ken Armstong, The Marshall Project and Christian Miller, ProPubilica working in tandem have written about how police treat rape victims. While the Lynnwood police department did not believe their rape victim, the police in Golden, Colorado did and they followed the correct procedures for handling rape crimes. First off, they believed their victims, they reached out to other area police departments looking for similar type occurrences. When confirmations of other similar rapes came the police departments worked together to identify the rapist, Marc Leary.

This book is examines how we as a society view rape. How are views were shaped, why we see some of the reactions to people claim of sexual assault. The #MeToo movement will hopefully have a positive impact on our handling of sexual assault.

This is a well written book about a very difficult subject.

Y is for Yesterday

Filed Under: Books Read

Y is for Yesterday

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton, Judy Kaye
Published by Random House Audio Publishing Group on August 22nd 2017
Series: Kinsey Millhone #25
Format: audiobook
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

The darkest and most disturbing case report from the files of Kinsey Millhone, Y is for Yesterday begins in 1979, when four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate—and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns state’s evidence and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace.

Now, it’s 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents—until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help. As she is drawn into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. But he’s not the only one being haunted by the past. A vicious sociopath with a grudge against Millhone may be leaving traces of himself for her to find…

After all these years, Sue Grafton can still turn out a good solid Kinsey Millhone case. Not many authors can claim that. Good easy listen.

About Sue Grafton

Sue-Grafton.jpg - Authors

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in twenty-eight countries and in twenty-six languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, beginning with A is for Alibi in 1982 and most recently, X, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. Named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, she has also received many other honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, the Ross Macdonald Literary Award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Malice Domestic, the Anthony Award given by Bouchercon, and three Shamus Awards.

Like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling talents. But who is the real Sue Grafton? Many of her readers think she is simply a version of her character and alter ego Kinsey Millhone. Here are Kinsey's own words in the early pages of N Is for Noose:

"So there I was barreling down the highway in search of employment and not at all fussy about what kind of work I'd take. I wanted distraction. I wanted some money, escape, anything to keep my mind off the subject of Robert Deitz. I'm not good at good-byes. I've suffered way too many in my day and I don't like the sensation. On the other hand, I'm not that good at relationships. Get close to someone and the next thing you know, you've given them the power to wound, betray, irritate, abandon you, or bore you senseless. My general policy is to keep my distance, thus avoiding a lot of unruly emotion. In psychiatric circles, there are names for people like me."

Those are sentiments that hit home for Grafton's readers. And she has said that Kinsey is herself, only younger, smarter, and thinner. But are they an apt description of Kinsey's creator? Well, she's been married to Steve Humphrey for more than thirty-five years and has three children, four granddaughters, and one great grandson. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine—not quite the nature-hating, fast-food loving Millhone. So: readers and reviewers beware. Never assume the author is the character in the book. Sue, who has a home in Montecito, California ("Santa Teresa") and another in Louisville, the city in which she was born and raised, is only in her imagination Kinsey Millhone—but what a splendid imagination it is.

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